A fun way to start 2017 is to commit to paper the plans I have for research in the year. Thanks for Deborah Lupton for the necessary persuasion to do this. This is a useful process for me, of course, but also a way of reaching out to potential collaborators. I love talking to people about their research ideas, and more importantly for their research ideas which might have a real impact on the world.

The things that interest me start with theory. Practice theory is a really practical way of thinking about the organisation of life in a way which moves beyond a human-centred approach. I hold very clearly that 'choice' and 'decision making' are hugely over-egged puddings. That doesn't fit very neatly with a political world view which calls for responsibility and citizenship above all else (including corporate responsibility), but it makes sense to me given the stuck-record routines that make up so much of society. As a starting point, this worldview, udnerpinned by practice theory, provides me with two avenues for research.

The first, and most appropriate given I'm a lecturer in marketing, is a nitty-gritty account of the consumption activities of individuals withing the systems of practices I see as being the core of social organisation. To this end I'm working on a piece that explores the practices of self-tracking amongst amateur athletes. I will be focusing on that study almost exclusively in the first third of 2017. Then I'll look for opportunities for further research. I particularly love the idea of self-tracking and it ticks the box for me as being about consumption, marketing and embedded politicization. I'm also a runner and cyclist myself so it's close to my heart (or my wrist, at least).

The second implication of the theoretical worldview I adopt in my academic life is that efforts to change behaviour based on individual, or reductionist views of the way life is organised are, to me, problematic at best. So I'm interested in the potential of practice theory for opening up new ways of 'doing behaviour change'. To this end I'm working on a project to explore school physical activity culture as a set of interlocking practices and to use this as the basis for intervention development along co-creation and systemic lines. I'm working with new collaborator Andrew Darnton on this and really enjoying that experience. That project kicks off fully at the end of April. I plan to spend the rest of the year researching and writing off the back of that.

There are, of course, many more smaller projects along the way, and some teaching and student research supervision. But these projects will be the pillars of my year. If either of them sound interesting, do get in touch!